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KFOR’s misleading story about the left-handed kid is out of control…

3:17 PM EDT on September 24, 2015

left handed kid

On Tuesday, we examined the misleading KFOR report about the angry parent from Okemah who said a pre-K teacher sent home a letter with her left-handed son that claimed left-handedness is evil and devilish.

We examined the letter in question and learned, not surprisingly, the sensational claims were taken out of context. The letter didn't say left-handed people were bad or evil. It was simply a medical article about hand dominance that included a small snippet of a how left-handedness has been viewed throughout human history and culture. You can view the post here.

Last night, KFOR did the right thing and provided a follow up to the story.

A school superintendent is defending the teacher behind the left-handed controversy inside an Oklahoma pre-k classroom...

A 4-year-old child was allegedly forced to use his right hand at Okemah’s Oakes Elementary, even though he’s left-handed. The teacher sent home an article calling left-handedness “evil.”

Wednesday, we sat down with the superintendent of Okemah Public Schools.

He said he’s looked into what happened and doesn’t believe the pre-k teacher tried to force the little boy to become right-handed.

But, the superintendent told us, without a doubt, that article sent home about the devil and being a lefty was way out of line.

The child, Zayde, is in pre-k.

His mom wondered why he was doing his homework with his right hand and exchanged notes with Zayde’s teacher.

She got an article from the teacher, calling left-handedness “unlucky,” “evil” and “sinister.”

Jesus H. Christ! Come on, KFOR. The letter did not claim left-handedness was “unlucky,” “evil” and “sinister!” Quit saying that. Context matters! This would be like the Pioneer Woman sending some hungry kid home with a recipe book, and then the kid's mom running to the media claiming the Pioneer Woman thinks children should be "Baked" "Broiled" and "Fed to Basset Hounds."

Okay, that's not a perfect analogy, but you get my point.

Anyway, you can check out the rest of the KFOR report here. They don't really admit to making a mistake or over-sensationalizing a non-story. I don't blame them. The original article has now gone viral and probably getting them tons of pageviews. Who cares if it's wrong?

Plus, sports stars are now rallying to support the left-handed kid who was not called evil by his teacher. Check out this video from the Miami Heat:

https://twitter.com/MiamiHEAT/status/646781512537366530

Yep, that seriously happened.

Instead of correcting the Miami Heat players and saying, "Hey, there may have been a mix up" or "You know, there are two sides to every story," Hot Girl Friday nominee Abby Broyles ate it up:

In all honesty, that's a pretty nice gesture by the players. Even though the letter didn't say there was anything wrong with being left-handed, Zayde's mom seems pretty damn convinced the teacher had it out for her son, and now he probably does believe there's something wrong with his hand. He could use the encouragement.

Anyway, hopefully this is the end of this story. If it ever happens again, I bet KFOR will avoid misleading, sensational headlines like "Oklahoma Pre-K teacher allegedly calls being left-handed ‘evil’ and ‘sinister,’" and go with something more accurate like "Parent misinterprets letter about hand dominance." Yeah right.

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